28 set Rethinking Education

There’s no need to remind you that technology is pervasive in our lives. It’s everywhere. However, my main paradox is that I see my kids going to school and having very little use of it as a tool for development, personal growth and inquiry. It is a huge paradox because for the past decade I’ve been working with educators and educational leaders to meaningfully incorporate edtech in their practices. Yet, in my own home reality is far from ideal. What I feel is that my kids are more and more disconnected to their classes and what they could be learning at school. They simply don’t perceive what they are studying/being exposed (which is different from learning) is relevant to them. Tech stays at the class door. And when it is part of the class, it is not close to what learners are used to doing with it, learning, socializing and being engaged.

My main goal in life and my pledge is a simple one. Let’s find ways to reinvent our teaching and the way we perceive the world and our learners’ worlds. Let’s reengage, rethink and redesign. What used to work when we were at school won’t work now when there’s so much open information and content out there. We still play an essential role of helping kids connect the dots, make sense of things, focus on what is important, but to get there we must deconstruct our own views of education and look around for purpose and meaning in why students need to learn what they are learning. This is our main role, make school relevant to our kids.

So, where do we start? By extending our perspective through other eyes, by seeing through different lens. So, here’s my invitation to explore this Youtube Playlist I created for you, RETHINKING EDUCATION. Going even farther, the idea is that we start a collective movement of learning about what’s out there. So add your own inspiring video to our education playlist and invite friends to join the movement of #rethinkinglearning #rethinkingeducation.

After exploring some of the videos, what stays with you? What would you like to try that was not in your radar before? What were your insights?

Ready to pivot and restart with more lightness, fun and engagement? Here’s my invitation to you.

Carla Arena is a social entrepreneur, educator by choice. She left a promising career in the public service to become an English teacher and got the chance to take roles she could have never imagined, such as site content manager at the Binational Center she worked for, Casa Thomas Jefferson. There, she was also the Supervisor of Educational Technology, and more recently Coordinator of Innovation and Technologies. Carla is a Google Innovator and educational technology consultant. Currently she innovates in her own business, AMPLIFICA (https://amplifica.org).